Areas of Work

In response to the increasing number of refugees, churches across Europe coordinated by CCME started Safe Passage. Click here for the information leaflet, or read the German leaflet.

In November 2014 Christian organisations published Recommendations for the development of safe and legal paths to protection in the European Union. Read more.

************

Asylum Seekers’ Transfers from Greece to Germany for Family Reunification under EU Regulation 604/2013

The undersigned organizations would like to express our serious concerns on a de facto violation of the right for family reunification and breach of relevant provisions stipulated in the EU Regulation 604/2013 (Dublin III Regulation), regarding asylum seekers’ transfers from Greece to Germany under family reunification procedure. We refer specifically to a practice recorded...read more

************

Joint Statement on Administrative Detention of Migrants

53 organisations including CCME have released a Joint Statement to the European Committee on Legal Co-Operation of the Council of Europe (CDCJ), calling for the adoption of a fundamentally different approach for the conditions of administrative detention of migrants....Read more

************

Conference of experts confirms churches’ role in creating welcoming and integrating societies

The biblical imperative to welcome the stranger was at the heart of a Churches’ Commission for Migrants in Europe (CCME) conference in Prague (Czech Republic) this week. The event brought together more than 70 representatives from Czech, Hungarian, Slovak, and Czech churches, governments, UNHCR, regional non-governmental organisations, and ..read more

************

NGOs' concern about the proposed EU cooperation with Libya

Over 70 NGOs have expressed their concern about proposed EU cooperation with Libya through a letter to EU heads of states and governments and EU policymakers.

The increasing number of people in need of international protection perishing on their way to safety is a sinister reminder of the limitations of the current international protection regime. Entitlements to the rights recognised by international and regional protection systems, including under the EU’s Common European Asylum System (CEAS), are accessible only to those who manage to...read more

************

Christian Comments on the proposed Common European Asylum System

Recent years have been marked by unprecedented numbers of refugees and asylum seekers forced to leave their countries. As a global phenomenon, international displacement has been on the highest level since World War II: according to the UNHCR, in 2016 65 million people were forcibly displaced because of conflicts, violence and human rights violations, in addition to....Read more

************

EU leaders can save lives this winter if they change migration policies

This week, European leaders meet in Brussels to discuss, amongst other things, progress on the EU-Turkey deal, the reform of the European asylum system, solidarity and responsibility sharing, and cooperation with countries of origin and transit. As humanitarian and human rights organisations working in Europe, we are gravely concerned that European policies are trying more and more to push people out of Europe, making it even harder to....Read more

************

Children cannot wait: 7 priority actions to protect all refugee and migrant children

78 organisations active in the field of children’s rights strongly welcome that this year’s European Forum on the Rights of the Child focuses on protecting children in migration. Children represent a significant proportion of migrants and refugees. At least 1 in 3 people arriving to Greece by sea in 2016 were children. In the same year, the number of unaccompanied children arriving to ...Read more

************

NGO Joint Comments on Resettlement

Since 2009, the European Commission has sought to coordinate resettlement efforts in order to firmly integrate resettlement in the external dimension of the EU’s asylum policy and to improve its strategic use in the context of the Joint EU Resettlement Programme. Our signatory organisations and member organisations, which have intervened in all stages of the resettlement process, have....read more

************

Christian Comments on the Dublin IV Regulation

The current Commission proposals have been formulated at a time when countries are above all preoccupied to reduce arrivals of refugees and migrants in Europe, rather than fundamentally addressing the shortcomings of a Dublin system, which have been signalled consistently over the last five years. At the same time, the majority of Member States have been rather reluctant...Read more

************

ACT Alliance, WCC, CCME and CWWM Statement on the UN Summit on Refugees and Migrants

The ACT Alliance , World Council of Churches (WCC) , Churches’ Commission for Migrants in Europe (CCME) , and Churches Witnessing With Migrants (CWWM) welcome the initiative of the United Nations Secretary General to convene on the 19th of September a summit for addressing large movements of refugees and migrants. There is hope among global civil society that it will provide...read more

The Alliance against Antigypsyism is a coalition of organisations that promote equality of rights for Roma, to advance a better understanding of antigypsyism. The Alliance counts more seventy members from across Europe. The Alliance counts more seventy members from across Europe and its reference paper was launched on 5th July 2016 to stir the debate about the nature and implications of antigypsyism. For more information please visit: www.antigypsyism.eu

************

NGOs strongly condemn new EU policies to contain migration

At the upcoming European Council, European Union (EU) leaders will discuss the European Commission’s Communication on a new Partnership Framework with third countries. The Communication proposes an approach which aims to leverage existing EU and Member States' external cooperation instruments and tools in order to stem migration to Europe. The undersigned organisations express their grave concern about the direction the EU is taking by making ....read more

************

‘Have no Fear’: A Statement

The World Council of Churches (WCC), the Conference of European Churches (CEC), the Churches’ Commission for Migrants in Europe (CCME) and the Protestant Church in the Netherlands (PKN), recognising a need among member-churches and ecumenical organisations to reflect on responses to the global refugee crisis, organised a conference in Lunteren between 14th and 16th June 2016. The conference brought together more than sixty representatives of.....read more; Dutch; German; Hungarian